Edward MendelsonVNC ConnectVNC Connect is solid, secure, and simple to use, once you get the hang of it. It has fewer features than other corporate-level remote access software, but it's also a lot less expensive.

Separate server and viewer apps make setup confusing. No drag-and-drop file transfer between viewer app and desktop. No sending one-time invitation emails from the remote machine.

Bottom Line

VNC Connect is solid, secure, and simple to use, once you get the hang of it. It has fewer features than other corporate-level remote access software, but it's also a lot less expensive.

VNC Connect offers remote control and shared meetings for personal and business use. Individuals may be attracted to its free plans, for home use, and small businesses may like it for its inexpensive subscription-based plans for professional and enterprise use. It's definitely affordable and simple to use, but this remote access software lacks some convenience features found in more expensive competitors, such as the ability to send a one-time invitation to a remote user when you need computer support, or to drag-and-drop files between the desktops of the remote and local machine.

Similar Products

VNC Connect, like its corporate-level rival, TeamViewer, fully supports Linux. If you or your company need Linux support for remote access, VNC Connect or TeamViewer are where you need to look. Older VNC Connect versions are even available for enterprise-level OSes like Solaris, AIX, and HP-UX. And if you're looking for a no-frills, no-cost remote access service for personal or occasional use, VNC Connect and TeamViewer are also your obvious choices, as they both offer limited free versions.

VNC Connect—formerly called RealVNC—stands out by offering a minimal free version that supports up to five computers, accessed remotely by up to three users. A more advanced Professional version with pricing that starts at $40 per year for one user—notably less than GoToMyPC and LogMeIn—and an Enterprise version, with pricing that starts at $55 per year for one user. The three versions offer increasing levels of security, with the Enterprise version offering the option of direct connectivity between machines with fixed IP addresses. The free and Professional plans use only the same kind of cloud-based connections used by other remote control systems that I've reviewed.

Do I Need Remote Access Software?

A remote access app lets you run a computer located across the room or across the world as if you were sitting right in front of its keyboard and screen. You connect to the remote machine using the app, and then—until you click the mouse outside the remote access window—everything you type and every move you make with the mouse gets sent to the remote machine. This gives you access to your own home or office desktop while traveling with your laptop.

Most of these apps also let you perform other tasks, like copying files back and forth between the machine you're really sitting in front of (your local machine) and the remote one, or copying text or graphics to the clipboard on one machine and pasting it on the other. They may even let you open a chat window so you can talk with whoever is sitting in front of the remote machine—handy if you're using the app to provide remote support. Some remote access software also lets you make video recordings of what happens on the remote screen, or use the remote screen like a whiteboard, drawing lines and arrows on the remote screen.

How It Works

For ordinary remote access use, VNC Connect works like any similar software. You need to install the VNC Server app on the machine you want to access, and the separate VNC Viewer app on the machine you want to connect from, a setup that won't bother IT managers setting up machines for corporate use, but one that is likely to confuse non-technical users. You can use a browser interface to manage your accessible computers by organizing some or all of them into a group—in order to make it easier to zero in on a specific machine—and you can also use the browser interface to send out invitations to friends or colleagues to join your team of users with access to your machine. But you can't start a remote session by clicking on a computer's icon in a browser window, as you can with GoToMyPC, LogMeIn, and TeamViewer.

When you install VNC Connect on a machine that you want to connect to remotely, it creates a six-word phrase and a hex-digit signature unique to that machine. The idea is that you'll recognize your machine when you see a phrase like "Between parade father. Nickel outside input." This is the actual phrase that VNC Connect created for one of my machines.

When you log in to your machine from another computer, you only need to enter the Windows user name and account password for the remote machine, but the dialog box displays the catchphrase and signature to reassure you that you're connected to the machine you want to access. This may seem a needless precaution, and it's something that other remote access apps don't offer, but the company explained that if the catchphrase isn't what you expect, it could signify that someone has intercepted your connection and could use it to access the machine you're logging in from.

While you're connected, the VNC Connect viewer displays the remote desktop and a minimal toolbar that lets you turn on a chat window, switch to full-screen mode, send Ctrl-Alt-Delete to the remote machine, or open a file-transfer dialog that you use for sending files to the remote machine. You can view one or more monitors in the remote machine—and the owner of the remote machine can choose an option that restricts you to viewing only a specific monitor.

As with all the other remote access programs I've reviewed, you can print a document on the remote machine to a printer connected to your local machine. File transfers from the remote machine are slightly awkward, because there's no unified file manager menu, as with GoToMyPC or LogMeIn. Instead, you need to click on the VNC Connect icon in the remote machine's system tray, then select the file-transfer option, and then select the file from a standard Windows file-select dialog.

VNC Connect's mobile-device apps are elegant and efficient, with clean interfaces and well-designed keyboards that let you swipe left and right on the top row in order to access function keys and special keys like the Windows key. VNC Connect was late to the party with its Android app, which was released only a few months ago, but the Android app now works as well as its long-established iOS version.

Access for All (or One)

For individual users and small groups, the best thing about VNC Connect is that it's available for free. And small, budget-constrained corporations may be enticed by its relatively low pricing per machine. If you're willing to pay a bit more for polish, you'll probably prefer one of our two Editors' Choice honorees, GoToMyPC, which is tops for personal use, or TeamViewer, our pick for corporate buyers. VNC Connect is a worthy product, but it's best suited for the high-end, security-minded enterprise market, where its direct connections, advanced security features, and multi-platform support combine to make it an exceptionally attractive choice.

VNC Connect

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